Pages

9/29/2015

"France is torn apart by the Wars of Religion. Catholics and Protestants have been fighting for years... To quench the hatred, Catherine sets up an alliance for peace: she marries her daughter Margot to Henri of Navarre, her Protestant cousin... Margot's wedding, a symbol of peace and reconciliation, will be used to set off the greatest massacre in the history of France."

Those are excerpts from La Reine Margot's prologue. The Catherine they're talking about is not Catherine Zeta-Jones. Not Catherine Deneuve. Not even Catherine the Great. It's Catherine de' Medici, the Adolf Hitler of 16th century. (Catherine was to Protestants as Hitler was to Jews.) Since the king in throne was reportedly a Mama's boy, Valois matriarch Catherine was practically the king and queen of France for quite a long time.

Millennials probably know Catherine from Reign, a CW series about Mary's life. The romanticized show portrays Catherine as a domineering yet sympathetic mommy with quite a good sense of humor — a glaring contradiction to the Catherine portrayed in La Reine Margot, which was marketed as Queen Margot in English-speaking countries.

9/24/2015

One of the most hyped movies in the history of Philippine cinema, indie film Heneral Luna tells the story of General Antonio Luna, aka Juan Luna's younger brother, aka the man who led the Philippine Revolution Army during the Philippine-American War.

Despite the film's popularity, I've yet to see the film. (I know, right?) Will definitely do so.

Without further blah blah blah, the other thing that piqued my interest for Heneral Luna, aside from the positive reviews, is this poster:

9/23/2015

The Godfather: Part II has many memorable scenes in it. Among those is young Vito Corleone's first day in New York's Ellis Island. The boy barely said a word because he had a traumatic experience back home (Corleone, Sicily) and because he can't speak English yet.

9/18/2015

Honestly speaking, I never expected Mad Max: Fury Road (aka MMFR) to be that good. I was expecting an "average Hollywood movie." You know, the kind that heavily relies on its stars' bankability, disregarding the quality of its plot and cinematography. (MMFR is a Hollywood-Australian production.)